Press
Interviews
Four War Review- “I had to learn Algebra Two, but no one taught me self love.” Kelly talks about self-love, womanhood and digging deep to find the hurt.
American Literary Review- I Have Always Been a Water Women
Rattlecast- Rattle editor, Tim Green, talks to Kelly about metaphor, how she came to poetry, and what’s next.
PANK: The Poetics of the Body- Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach interviews Kelly and writing, water, womanhood and much, much more.
Verse of April- Kelly discusses what poetry means to her and the authors that inspire her.
21 Questions with Rob McLennan- When your army has crossed the border, you should burn your boats…” For Thomas, the borders of which she refers are that of the body, and female agency, as her poems examine her physical and emotional self against trauma, toxic cultural expectations and body dysphoria.
REVIEWS
The Rumpus- Boat Burned urges us to get out of the water and let our rage become a storm. The last lines of the collection are a message for all of us who feel weighted down by this country: “They can’t sink us / if we name ourselves / sea.”
Tupelo Quarterly- These poems pass like soft pastries and worn beach glass between the teeth asking the reader to consider their own emotional cravings. “Women,” she admonishes, “keep / this world bloomdizzy. / Teach these teeth / to tender. We are swollen / with tomorrow. It’s time to holy / one another instead.”
Rhino- “Thomas’s book is essentially a book of love and resilience, of reclaiming the vessel of the body with all of its perceived flaws and accepting the kind of love (both from self and others) that will varnish the hull, repair the leaks, call the vessel worthy, name it beautiful.”
Cultural Weekly- “Every poem in this collection matters. Every poem is a hook that both attaches us to our thoughts while simultaneously freeing our thinking. Thomas’s poems will both hold and sustain you.” Alexandra Umlas reviews Boat Burned for Cultural Weekly.
The Poetry Question- “Thomas has done well with her debut collection. It is a poignant and visceral addition to feminist poetics.”
LunaLuna Magazine- “ Sax wrote, “In this remarkable inaugural collection, Kelly Grace Thomas reminds us water is where we are from, water is what we are made of, and water is where we’ll return.” That’s enough to convince me.”
Podcasts
Poetry Saloncast- Kelly discusses mining for metaphors, and how she uses them, not just in one poem, but as a way to hold an entire collection together.
If It’s Not One Thing It’s Your Mother- Kelly discusses her body image, how it is passed down through the generations, and what we're teaching our kids about it, especially in our silent moments.
NEWs
Boat Burned Book Release Party at Get Lit-Words Ignite
Future Tense, Kelly’s second poetry collection was picked by Alice James
Small Press Distributions recommends Boat Burned under poetry collections read.
Boat Burned was released on January 7, 2020 by YesYes Books from YesYes Books
Best New Poets 2019 - “Small Things” will be forthcoming in Best New Poets of 2019
Best of the Net Nominations - Kelly was nominated for a Best of the Net award for “Omid Tells me I’ve Been Looking Less Puffy” by Construction Lit Mag and for “Synopsis on Drought” by SunDog Lit
Rita Dove Poetry Award - Kelly was name a finalist for her poem "Femininity as a Math Problem in an Attempt to Solve for X"
American Literary Review Poetry Award - Kelly was named a triple-finalist for her poems "Boat/Body," "Life/Boat" and "Half-Masted"
Accepted to the Tin House Winter Workshop will be mentored by Patricia Smith
Kelly reading at the Sacremento Poetry Center
"The Polite Bird of Story" won second place in the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize
"The Most Bones" was nominated for the a Best of the Net Award by the Boiler Journal
"And The Women Said" Winner of the Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from Rattle
"And the Women Said" was also nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize in Poetry
"The Politics of Scent" was a semi-finalist for the Crab Creek Poetry Prize. Additional Pushcart Prize Nominations
Best of the Net Nominations - Kelly was nominated for a Best of the Net award for “Omid Tells me I’ve Been Looking Less Puffy” by Construction Lit Mag and for “Synopsis on Drought” by SunDog Lit
Rita Dove Poetry Award - Kelly was name a finalist for her poem "Femininity as a Math Problem in an Attempt to Solve for X"
American Literary Review Poetry Award - Kelly was named a triple-finalist for her poems "Boat/Body," "Life/Boat" and "Half-Masted"
Accepted to the Tin House Winter Workshop will be mentored by Patricia Smith
"The Polite Bird of Story" won second place in the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize
"The Most Bones" was nominated for the a Best of the Net Award by the Boiler Journal
"And The Women Said" Winner of the Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from Rattle
"And the Women Said" was also nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize in Poetry
"The Politics of Scent" was a semi-finalist for the Crab Creek Poetry Prize. Additional Pushcart Prize Nominations
About Boat Burned
They Can’t sink us if we name ourselves sea
-Kelly grace thomas
In this remarkable inaugural collection of poems, Kelly Grace Thomas reminds us water is where we are from, water is what we are made of, and water is where we’ll return. These formally dexterous poems invite the reader to consider how the craft of a poem is a physical object that helps keep us afloat. Boat Burned interrogates the moment where the embodied spirit butts up against the strictures and violence of an impossible world. This is an urgent new collection from an urgent new voice. ”
— -sam sax, author of Bury It
“Tendertangle—I love when a book makes a new word like Kelly Grace Thomas does here in Boat Burned. A tendertangle, a lush portmanteau, is how I drank and devoured these water-drenched poems. This mercy-hearted work shows great concern and empathy for the twisted mess and mass of bodies—bodies as boats, bodies burning, body as a window, the lover’s body, and the parental body as a woven elegy and ode. This gorgeous debut is a sustained symphonic metaphor on what we carry in our vessels, all the damage and joy (inherited and otherwise) sailing and sinking and singing through magnificent verse. Thomas is a master of intense precision of feeling. The diction is hungry and barking “for anything to love us back.” I am beyond excited for this brilliant and beautiful collection.
--Tiana Clark, author of I Can't Talk About the Trees Without the Blood
At the same time expansive and intimate, Kelly Grace Thomas’s debut collection navigates issues of loss, family, and agency. Boat Burned invites us to witness the pains and subsequent joys of rebirth—"The boats that built me / smoke on shore.” Thomas’s voice shines like a lighthouse beacon—guiding us through the difficult memories and toward the future’s open waters.
-Paige Lewis, author of Space Struck
“History is a dirty / ocean. And I am dangerous / with thirst,” says luminous poet Kelly Grace Thomas, in her spellbinding Boat Burned. The gorgeous poems that populate this powerful collection “rise // fully formed from sea.” These are elegant, crisp, clear and potent poems that tackle such issues as impossible beauty standards, eating disorders, racist attitudes in the U.S., divorce and family trauma, all while binding a thickly knotted rope of love between the speaker and her family, the speaker and the world around her. The sea-salted and boat-burned voice of this speaker sings clear as a prophetess all that is painful for women in this society, and all that is possible. She suggests we, “1)Give back the rib 2) Eat every apple / until [we] are fat with orchards 3) Dress / in snake and dig a grave.” And while the speaker asserts, “I don't like asking to be fed,” this collection offers much sustenance to carry away long after we’ve read the final page.
–Jenn Givhan, award-winning author of Rosa’s Einstein
testimonials
Read first-hand experiences from clients working with Kelly Grace Thomas as an editor, workshop instructor, and writing coach.
Kelly’s workshop totally R O C K E D!!! Definitely in the top 3 workshops Ive ever taken. Seriously. SOOOO GOOOOD!!!
-Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of Enter Here, poetry editor, Cultural Weekly
Kelly is a knowledgeable, generous, helpful teacher and editor of both poetry and prose. In her workshop I continuously learn new techniques for crafting my writing, deepening my voice, and pushing the boundaries of language. This past year I had several poems published in reputable journals - all of them came from Kelly's workshop, or were significantly improved by her editing skills. If you want to learn a great deal about craft, and have a warm, fun, supportive environment while you do, I highly recommend working with Kelly.
- Tresha Faye Haefner Rubenstein, Founder of the Poetry Salon
KGT combines craft with kindness, with no shortage of either in her efforts to push our skills to the next level. She demonstrates how to develop a poet’s ear from metaphor and daring language.
- Jacinta Camacho Kaplan- poet and activist
I call Kelly Grace, PW, short for Poem Whisperer. I dubbed her this distinction because of her amazing skills as a coach, editor, teacher, workshop leader, and ride or die friend to poets.Kelly Grace is incredibly perceptive and sensitive to her students' voices and poetry. She provides a creative atmosphere of safety where poets create outstanding and publishable work. Additionally, she is well read, and is familiar with books and resources poets need to hone their skills.
- Angela Franklin, memoirist and author
“I have loved writing & theatre for my whole life. No one ever told me to write a play before Kelly Grace Thomas. She is as magical a teacher, as powerful a guide, as everyone says.
Her force is deep and natural, and she is a born advisor. With her encouragement, I wrote a play that is being produced and opens this weekend! And I am working on a musical with a full band, set to open in 2019.
With youth, she fosters them to dig farther into themselves, to work harder, to treat themselves kindly and take themselves seriously.
She is every fantastical teacher from the storybooks we love (Matilda, Miss Nelson’s Class, etc.) combined. One of a kind. Once in a generation. Honored to know her and work with her.”
- Veronika Shulman, Head Storyteller, Bambino Branding
One of most important thing that I value is accountability. I can count on her in the deathbed. Kelly is always keep her promise on editing time with wide open her poet’s hawk eye with her magical editing pen in her hand. She has tremendous gift as an editor and beautiful genuine soul as a human and she really care for your work with kind heart. I am incredibly happy to work with Kelly. Kelly helps me to look at words in a different dimension. She is able to cut and create more edges, and crisp turns in the poem. I just started work with her recently but my submitted poems getting publish like a fireworks!!!
- Tanya Ko-Hong, author of Generation One Point Five and Mother to Myself
Kelly is one of the most generous, talented, and hard working writers I know. Not only is she a master of the craft, with a passion for finding just the right image or word, but she also has a gift for identifying what's not working in my pages, and giving actionable and meaningful feedback. Writing is a lonely journey, and having Kelly as my guide along the way is what helps keep me going.
-Julia Campbell, USC educator and novelist
Kelly Grace Thomas’s Poetry & Social Justice classes have been a huge boon to my writing. And doing her brilliant prompts in class have allowed me to dissolve the barrier between realpolitik and art. She is a master poetry teacher.”
-Bill Ratner, Voice-over Actor and Storyteller